Zooming in on teenage galaxies in the distant Universe

This zoom sequence starts with a view of the faint constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). We then close in on a region of sky close to the famous red variable star Mira. This region contains a selection of galaxies that were used in a new survey of the feeding habits of young galaxies as they grew through cosmic time. Each of the tiny blobs, marked with red crosses, are galaxies seen as they were between three and five billion years after the Big Bang. They have been studied in detail using ESO’s VLT and the SINFONI instrument. The colour maps at the end of the video show the motions of the gas in the galaxies. Blue indicates that the gas is moving towards us, compared to the galaxy as a whole, and red that the gas is receding. These colours allow astronomers to see if the galaxies is rotating like a disc or has some other behaviour.